It appears Verizon is going to make good on their offer of giving all Palm Pre Plus and Pixi Plus owners free 5 GB of Mobile Hotspot usage per month, despite charging upcoming Droid X a 2 GB-for-$20 for the exact same service.

The Palm Pre Plus and Pixi Plus were the first phones in America to offer Mobile Hotspot service officially, after seven years of PhoneNews.com telling folks how to do that for free already. After sales of the Pre Plus and Pixi Plus stagnated, Verizon gave the service away for free… effectively nullifying the need to ever own a mobile broadband card.

However, AT&T charging a minimum of $70 for iPhone tethering data plans, appears to have prompted Verizon to reverse plans. One problem; they promised Palm buyers the service for free. So, they’re grandfathered (at least for the life of their contracts).

And, you can be grandfathered too.

All you need to do is buy a Pre Plus or Pixi Plus and keep it in the tote bag of your choice. When you want a mobile hotspot, dial *228 and chose the hidden Option 3 to do a device swap in-the-field. That will swap you from Droid X (or any phone for that matter) over to the phone you’re calling in from. In this case, that’s a Pre/Pixi Plus.

Once you’ve done that, fire up Mobile Hotspot and enjoy. When finished, you simply call *228 from your main phone, and swap back. You can even fire up Wi-Fi on your Droid (X) and surf on it as well.

Now, we know this may not be practical for everyone. But, for casual Mobile Hotspot users and bandwidth hogs alike, this could save you hundreds of dollars per year… even factoring in the cost of the $150 Pixi Plus (we’re going by eBay prices on that one).

Doing the math, 5 GB of data costs $60 extra (three $20, 2 GB tethering charges). That’s $720 per year for those that use 4-5 GB of tethering per month.

If you’re a casual user, you can save just as much, that $20/month tethering fee is going to wind up costing you $480 over the course of a two year contract. More interested in carrying around a Palm as a spare phone? We thought so.

Disclaimer: We aren’t Verizon. Verizon may not like we wrote this (not that we care). Verizon may decide it’s cheaper to let all the Palm folk out of their contracts and yank the free 5 GB of tethering. Or, they may implement some unfair you-swap-phones-and-lose-the-free-hotspot rule change. We don’t know. Again, we’re not Verizon.

Christopher Price is the Founding Editor of PhoneNews.com. Today, he leads the team building iConsole.tv - a new kind of Android™ device. He still likes to pontificate... a lot. You can visit his personal blog at ChristopherPrice.net.

ROFLMAO!!!! I’m sorry, (coughs, wipes tears rolling down cheeks) but this is just too funny. No argument VZW is King of the Telco Ripoff Artists, as I’ve ranted on in other threads but I mean, really…c’mon.

I gotta say though, that *228-3 trick is pretty sslick. Thought ESN swap was strictly a call-in/online deal. Sure beats swapping SIMS. But with VZW using SIMS for LTE, this too, like tethering plans, is subject to change, like the weather.

We’re just saying that if you want to go into a contract for a Droid X, you might be better off swapping with a Pre Plus… or, leaving the Droid X in Wi-Fi mode and having it tether to your Pre/Pixi Plus.

We’ve been using Droid Eris in Wi-Fi mode with a Pre Plus for awhile now… no problems to report here.

How is it legal for verizon to charge $20 for hot spot tethering in the first place. We (the customer) are already paying for an unlimited data plan. Tethering is a feature of the phones os not the network. The phone is mearly acting as a proxy. Aren’t they double dipping in there fees. They say unlimited data and then recharge us for using the data plan you already payed for. How I use my technology is not there business if I paid for it. There are no additional fees to verizon for providing the tethering service. Nor are there additional fees for providing Sync to exchange functionality. Its Free in the os. ITs free from Microsoft with Exchange Active Sync (comes with Exchange Server). Not to mention Active sync is just a web service. We are just so used to paying the Blackberry fees we assume there is a cost for the exchange fees. There isn’t! Stop ripping us off verizon and treat your customers fairly and with respect!! Everyone should just root there phones and get the OS as it was intended instead of just the features verizon releases without charging more!

The reason they can do it is because no one is stopping them. At the same rate they can’t stop the user from using programs like pdanet or other tethering programs. Until the rules are set in writing companies will continue to take advantage of the consumer and the techsavvy consumers will continue to find ways to exercise their right to use their device any way they please just like a highspeed modem at their house.

so if i wanted to use the hotspot for the free 5 gb a month, i would have to purchase a pre plus/pixi first under a new contract then get the droid x, or i can buy the droid x and then go on ebay to buy the pre plus/pixi?

Couldn’t you just unlock it your self via PDAnet…you can buy the program for 30 bucks. I’m sure by now…or soon that the drivers will be available. Why carry around 2 phones….that’s pointless. I’ve seen many phones unlocked still working on major carriers networks with the hot spot unlocked for FREE. (sort of)

[…] enables 720p HD video capture along with support for Verizonâ€™s paid mobile hotspot service (see here for an alternative) and preinstalls the Skype application along with new boot animation. var […]

PDANet only can enable USB and Bluetooth DUN. Due to kernel restrictions, PDANet cannot access the Wi-Fi driver.

Carrying around two phones may sound pointless, but the simple fact of the matter is that it’s a lot more reliable than the Android Wi-Fi hacks. For example, Android-Wifi-Tether (which requires rooting the Android phone to begin with) can’t even do WEP encryption on most phones… even if you do manage to get it up and running.

Carrying around a $99 Pixi Plus from eBay isn’t pointless when you want to use your iPad and Droid X (and notebook… simultaneously) on the go. It’s safe, secure (WPA), and blazing fast… for $0/month extra.

You can now dial *228 option 1 even… they’ve updated their systems since this article to support device swapping as part of the standard activation.

Yes, the 5 GB of Mobile Hotspot is added automatically when you activate any Pre Plus or Pixi Plus. It’s handled via plan code, and that plan code is added/removed when you activate/deactivate a Pre or Pixi.

Also I want to clarify that I have a lot of respect for the android-wifi-tether project and all of its contributors. It isn’t their fault that Google designed Android to restrict access to the Wi-Fi driver.

My point is, Verizon will not let you activate a Droid X bought through them without the data plan. Were you may be able to get a used or new Palm from Ebay at 100 – 150 bucks…you still need to pay for the data plan on the Palm. An unlocked Droid X will run you 600 to 700 dollars with the online vendors. If I did my math right it might cost you more using two phones

ahh…I see what your doing. Swap “when needed” between two phones. Sorry for my ignorance, but I still see that as a pain in the A$$. Nice to know that you can do that, but may not be convenient for some.

I did see that they were able to get the HTC EVO wireless tether unlocked…google “android wireless tether” but you would have to root your phone. They’ve also have if for the Droid. I’m sure it will be done soon for the X.

Also, I have another question. I currently have only one phone (Droid X) on my plan. If I get a Pre/Pixi, will it cost me anything besides the $90-100 to use it as mentioned in this article? Thank you for sharing.

What he’s doing is this… have a new Droid X from Verizon with all the required contract stuff..data plan etc. Then you get a used or new Palm pre/pixi from ebay or else where…and dial *228..then press 3. this will change your plan from the droid X to the Pre/pixi. You will not get phone calls on the device…only on the pre/pixi. when you done using the hot spot….revert it back to the Droid X. You’d still be able to use the Droid as a internet browser and video player etc…just not make or receive any calls from it, unless your using skype.

The palm Pre/pixi has free wifi hotspot. by doing this trick…you wouldn’t have to pay for it on the droid. you’d just have to carry two phones and keep reverting back and forth between phones. One thing that was not mentioned was how may times can you change back and forth between phones in a 24 hour period? Some carriers only allow 1 time in a 24 hour period.

[…] are many combinations for Verizon customers looking to pair a Virgin MiFi instead of paying exorbitant tethering charges. For example, you can use a Verizon feature phone or older smartphone, the data block, and a Virgin […]

Interesting tactic and i’m surprised its actually officially supported by Verizon. But a bit complex and unnecessary you think? The touchphone you probably have is already hard enough as it is to operate without prior experience.

Very interesting post Christopher, thank you. I’m intrigued by your idea though I wonder about one thought: avoiding the Droid altogether and going with the Pre as the full time device? Until tonight, I never heard a good thing about the Pre….then my buddy sold me on how cool it is and I played around with it–not bad. Anyone on here happy with their Pre?

The only problem with the Pre Plus on Verizon is the GPS does not work with third-party apps properly… until you install the GPS Fix app and configure it. That takes about an hour to do, but you only have to do it once.

There’s nothing bad about the Pre Plus, but due to Palm’s financial woes, HP acquisition, and brain drain of senior leadership to other companies… the webOS development path has hit some major snags. Now that Palm is a part of HP, things are getting back on track, but webOS 2.0 is still at least a few months away.

And, at the rate things are going, Verizon will then add two months to approve the update on top of that.

Having a more-powerful Mobile Internet Device like an Android 2.2 device or an iPod touch will give you a more-powerful app economy and a faster web browsing experience. But, webOS isn’t dead on arrival at all.

[…] access. Android customers on Verizon pay $20/month for an optional 2 GB of Mobile Hotspot coverage, thus saving webOS customers on Verizon up to $720/year in tethering charges (when compared to using 5 GB/month on an aircard or […]

[…] access. Android customers on Verizon pay $20/month for an optional 2 GB of Mobile Hotspot coverage, thus saving webOS customers on Verizon up to $720/year in tethering charges (when compared to using 5 GB/month on an aircard or […]